PL
After a dynamic hydrological start to the year, the situation on the rivers is stabilizing. The State Water Holding Polish Waters (Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie) continues to monitor the hydro-meteorological situation, including the area of the Sandomierz Vistula, which is part of the “Safe Vistula – Ecologically into the Future” program.
According to data from the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), this February was by far the warmest and wettest since 1951! The average monthly rainfall totaled over 65 mm, while the typical amount for this month (from 1991 to 2020) was only around 32 mm. While one would expect freezing weather in February, this year brought quite the opposite.
“Heavy rainfall and snowmelt in the catchment area of the so-called Sandomierz Vistula required and still require us to monitor and be ready for immediate action. This is an area prone to flooding and inundations. Therefore, systemic solutions are necessary, and we are working on them with a team of experts as part of the ‘Safe Vistula – Ecologically into the Future’ program. Various scenarios are being analyzed, along with revisions of proposals and the results of studies obtained in previous projects implemented within water management in Poland,” says Wojciech Kozak, Director of the PGW WP RZGW Kraków.
So, what happened in February in the areas covered by the project?
The ‘trial’ of the floodgate in Sandomierz.
in February the water levels remained high across the entire area, with a downward trend only in the last week of the month. A flood wave passed through the Vistula River, reaching a level of 505 cm (85 cm above the warning level). This required the closure of the floodgate in Sandomierz. For this device, it was its “trial” in flood conditions – informed the Management Board of the Sandomierz Catchment. The gate was commissioned in 2023 as part of the “Flood Protection for Sandomierz” project. Its primary task is to protect against flooding in the right-bank areas of Sandomierz, particularly the Pilkington glassworks and the surrounding residential areas.
Photo: Tomasz Chmiel Photography, source: Facebook RZGW Kraków.
Interventions in the area of the Dąbrowa Tarnowska Water Supervision.
In addition to the Vistula, high water levels were recorded on many other rivers in the region. In the area of the Dąbrowa Tarnowska Water Supervision, high water levels occurred twice this year, in January and in the February described above. This particularly affected the Brzęń and Żabnica rivers. A significant influx of water was observed, including at the pumping stations operating there. Water pumping took place with the facilities operating at one-third capacity.
Flood embankments, along with their culverts, have been and continue to be closely monitored. Interventions were undertaken, for example, on the Brzęń River near the cemetery in the village of Zabrnie, as well as in Radwan and Brzezówka. The Dąbrowa Tarnowska Water Supervision informed that after the runoff of rain and thaw waters and the lowered water level in the riverbed, employees of the Polish Waters Technical Support Team from Szczucin conducted a review of the unregulated Brzęń River over a 3.5 km stretch in the villages of Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Żelazówka, Brnik. The riverbed is clear, and the water flows freely. Furthermore, our field services monitor the embankments for harmful animal activities and continuously fill in burrows and scatter molehills.
Photo: RZGW Kraków, review of the unregulated Brzęń River.
The “Safe Vistula” action plan is a response to climate change.
The anomalies observed in February this year are definitely a manifestation of the effects of climate change. After many years of drought, wet periods are needed to raise the groundwater levels. However, it is important to control such events and derive appropriate benefits, such as increasing the retention capacity of catchments. To minimize the impacts of extreme events (floods, droughts) and enhance retention levels, work is underway in the area of the so-called Sandomierz Vistula on an action plan titled “Contract 5.7.2 Retention Action Program as Part of Flood Risk Management in the Upper Western Vistula and Upper Eastern Vistula Water Regions between Kraków and Zawichost.” The program is commonly known as “Safe Vistula – Ecologically into the Future.” Expert teams continue to work on developing various scenarios, detailed parameters for the proposed solutions, and are analyzing their economic, social, and environmental effectiveness. The analytical work also took into account the results of surveys and observations from local government representatives collected during previous meetings. Detailed conclusions will be presented at the second expert conference with the participation of representatives from local government units (LGUs), environmental organizations, and all stakeholders from the areas covered by the project.